Google Voice Call Forwarding

 

Background

Tellescope users with an existing phone number in Google Voice may want to continue to use that number as they transition to using Tellescope for calling. Most users will opt to port their numbers from Google Voice to Twilio (Tellescope’s phone provider), which we encourage. Please reach out to your point of contact at Tellescope for help with porting your Google Voice number(s).

💡 Call Forwarding is typically a temporary solution that is set up while a number is being transferred from Google Voice to Tellescope

Limitations

When a call is forwarded from Google Voice to a Tellescope number and you answer the call in Tellescope, you will typically hear a message like "To confirm you are not a voicemail service, please press 1”. You can type 1 and press send to answer the call. To the best of our knowledge, Google Voice does not appear to have a way of disabling this step. However, it imposes 2 key limitations

• Forwarded calls from Google Voice will not work with a Tellescope Phone Tree, because the tree has no way of responding by pressing 1, and Google Voice may not properly forward any inputs that a user may provide
• Forwarded calls from Google Voice that result in a voicemail, will have the voicemail handled by Google Voice and not Tellescope

These limitations are often okay as a temporary workaround but are why we strongly recommend porting the number to Tellescope so that we can support you with our full product functionality.

Setup

In Google Voice, go to Settings > Account and find “Linked Numbers”

Click + New linked number

 💡 Make sure to click “verify by phone”, as Google will not send text messages for verification to Twilio numbers

With Tellescope open in another tab, enter your Tellescope number in Google Voice

Answer the call in Tellescope, and enter the provided code into Google Voice to confirm

Make sure that Call Forwarding is enabled for this new Linked Number

And make sure that the following setting is off, so that we can display the appropriate contact’s phone number in Tellescope when they call, rather than your Google voice number